Spring 1999 - Case Study in Psychic Counseling

 

JULIE

I did quite a long reading for Julie and at the end of it we both felt rather dissatisfied because there had apparently not been much drama to it, or so we thought at the time.  As it turned out, this was one of those readings that becomes a “slow burn” and the client learns more after the reading than during it, which in the long run is probably more valuable anyway.

My first image in my mental “Workshop” was of Julie as a small child standing at the end of a dock looking down into the water and screaming.  The scene was disturbing because she seemed hysterical and more out of control than a small child would normally be over most childhood mishaps.  The scene remained in the workshop for quite some time and nothing seemed to be developing from it.  I mentioned it to Julie in hopes it would mean something to her, but she found no connection with any memory.

When I went back to the workshop, the scene remained and now I was curious enough to walk out on the dock myself.  The child was obviously terrified of something that she saw in the water, and perhaps if I could see it I could untangle the mystery.  When I reached the end of the dock, I looked into the water and saw resting on the bottom of the bay, just a couple feet under the surface of the water, a dead body, bloated and ash white, its eyes staring up at me.  The image was so real that it startled me and remains very vivid to this day.

I opened my eyes and described what I saw in hopes Julie would have a sudden memory or explanation of the scene, but it still meant nothing to her.  She did explain that she has always had an extreme fear of water, but not in the usual sense.  She is not afraid of drowning, but afraid there is something in the water that will get her, even in a well-lit swimming pool.  The phobia is so severe that she refused to put her foot in lakes or even sit too close to a swimming pool for fear of being pushed in.  There certainly could be a connection to the phobia and the scene I saw, but nothing came to her mind.

When I went back to the Workshop, the next scene was of an enormous mansion on the east coast, like something out of the movies.  I walked through the front door into a huge entry room with a dramatic staircase and tall windows.  In the center of this room was a casket with a woman's body in it.  Again, the image was so clear that I opened my eyes and I told Julie what I saw and asked if it had any significance to her.  From my description the house was obviously her grandmother's.  She owned one of New York State's largest estates, situated on a small bay.  Her grandmother had died when Julie was a child, but she didn't remember any of the details.

The final scene in the Workshop was of Julie being actually locked into a small room in the attic of this estate and not being allowed out for hours at a time.  There was a stern governess standing in the circular driveway watching me and making it clear that she would not allow me inside!  When I told this to Julie the image seemed to have a jarring effect on her and she had a distinct memory of being kept against her will by a cruel woman, but nothing was very clear.  The reading ended with other information for Julie about her current situation and she left to listen to the tape of the session.

The next day she called to say she had had an extraordinary time listening to the tape and recalling dozens of long-lost memories from her childhood.  She was so shaken by the experience that she had to see me that very day.

When we met, she sat with tears in her eyes recalling events and emotions triggered by the reading and the images I had seen.  She had suddenly remembered that her grandmother died while she was staying with her for a summer, probably when she was four or five years old.  She remembered the confusion and upset and commotion as the large family gathered for the funeral and reading of the will.

She had been told that grandmother had died and gone to heaven, which while it may not have been too clear, did at least explain why she was not around anymore.  She was content with the explanation until one day grandmother's body appeared in the casket in the entry hall for friends and neighbors to view.  Julie vividly recalled being very confused and terrified that grandmother was not dead and in heaven as she was told, but in fact was in the entry hall sleeping!  She had some awful, yet vague memory of having touched the body which may have been the event which triggered her mind to block the entire memory.  She did remember being very upset that people had lied to her about the situation.

She was able to follow the entire sequence of events and remembers that the next day the casket was removed, there was a ceremony of sorts, and then she was told that grandmother was going to be put into the bay!  As a child, she had no concept of cremation, and probably would not have believed anyone anyway since she had already been lied to about grandmother being in heaven.  Now she was being told that grandmother was going to be thrown into the bay at the end of the dock, and when she got to that point in her recall, my image of the body in the water made perfect sense.

It finally explained why she was terrified of some unknown thing in the water, and well she might be with an image such as that!  She even recalled that shortly after the funeral, a governess was hired to take care of her for the rest of the summer, and the woman did in fact lock her in a small room whenever she was “bad.”  Julie remembered that as being even more terrifying than dealing with her grandmother's death.

Revelations such as these can help us understand why sometimes we act or respond in ways that do not seem logical.  The past imprints us and we must know how it does so before we can understand our present and future.

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